Dad's Shed

16/05/2025

Meanie Pt 10 - New Solo seat,

I’d already decided that the Meanie will be a solo bike, no chance o carrying a pillion. So pillion peg brackets were removed and I decided on a solo seat for the bike.

Had a look around and fancied a Corbin Hollywood Solo, but trying to find a second hand one or a new one in the UK was impossible. So it would have to come from the states, and if you go on their site you can design your own seat and get 3D rendition of the actual seat you want. Absolutely brilliant site and amazing amount of different leathers, fabric, colours, just pick and stitch.

So the first pics show what I had decided on, only problem was getting one from the States. Their site directs you to a UK supplier, but, when you check they are actually in Australia and use a drop address in the UK.

So dropped them an email just to see how much it would cost – oer £1200, nae chance lol.

So following a tip from Callum, I gave Steve at Stitched UP Upholstery Limited a message, sent him the Corbin pics and pics of my seat, got a price which was unbelievable, paid him a visit to confirm materials and bingo, got a stunning seat for a very reasonable amount o beer tokens.

As you can see the finished seat is amazing.

26/04/2025

Meet Steve,
Steve is brill,
Steve is an artist,
Steve is Stitched UP Upholstery Limited.
Keeping it local, cause locals are best.

(Just found out you can have subtitles lol)

26/04/2025

25/04/2025

Whatever next ??????????????

15/02/2025

What with most of the dealers in the city now shut, we have one of the oldest Motorcycle Garages wanting to increase their foothold in the centre.

Some of you like myself have been dealing with Jopps Motorcycles since the 80's and I for one am fully behind bigger premises and a bigger presence in Aberdeen City.

12/01/2025

Meanie Pt9 – Air Filter

My Kuryakin Hyper-charger was showing a lot of wear, mainly due to the cheap “show” chrome that was on it. A few years of Scottish weather and sitting in a barn had shown the worst of American chroming.

I had Steve Rainnie bead blast all the chrome off which showed up the damage areas under the chrome which I had to rub down as smooth as I could then everything was sent over to Dave at Clockwork Powder Coating. We decided to powder coat the housing with Dave’s professional advice and I’m really glad I listened to the expert. The finish is beautifully smooth and covers up some of the worst damage on the aluminium.

The Hyper-charger came with the Infinity Light cover, which I managed to dissemble and repair, water/moisture had managed to seep in over the years and there was some scratches on the front face from my trousers continually rubbing on the front of it. I managed to find a round mirror which only needed a little sanding to get it to fit into the housing, the front face was acrylic and easily polished with the dremel drill.

I had originally fitted 2 strips of blue LED’s inside the air- filter, these were replaced with 2 strips of red/yellow/orange flickering LED’s kind of like a fire effect.

The butterfly plates and all the fittings were cerakoted to finish it off.

Looks amazing compared to how badly it had looked when I took it off.

12/01/2025

Meanie Pt8 - Switch gear & Brakes

Stripping down the Brake caliper’s was a bit of a pain, the rear caliper piston came out no problem at all, the fronts she ite.
I managed to get 4 pistons out of the left hand side but only 2 out of the right. It then became a battle of wills against the stuck ones. Cans of Plusgas, hot air gun, hammer, chisel, even set fire to the rubber seals to give me some free play, eventually got another 2 out.

Had a look on Ebay for a replacement set, ridiculous prices for Mean Streak parts, but if your sneaky…. The front end is off a Kawa ZX9R, and because there are so many of them on the road, the prices are a fraction of the Meanies. I found a set off a 2000 mile bike for £150 or best offer, so I offered him £120 and he accepted lol. Checked them out when they arrived and they were like brand new, pistons came out with my fingers.

Switch gear was a bit tatty, not bad for a 20 yr old bike, but needed a freshen up. Switches stripped out and Master cylinder stripped out, covers were buffed down and smoothed then calipers, switch gear and master cylinder were cerakoted by Dave at Clockwork Powder Coating.
Re-wired switches with added wiring for the Klictronic gear change switches. Clutch switch was removed, it’s been replaced with a pressure switch fitted to the clutch assembly instead.

Mounting bolts were all swapped out for black stainless, a couple of brass nuts for contrast, some nice brass spacers and stainless brackets for the added switch by Graeme Buchan and nice wooded grips by Callum at CM Joinery.

Brake lines were replaced with a kit from Venhill, although I needed to buy a 90 degree joint to get the splitter to sit properly because the supplied bracket was sh*te.

07/01/2025

Meanie Pt7 – Lights, Console, Speedo

The headlight, originally fitted was a single 7”, I had changed mine to a set of Dominator twin headlights years ago, and although I liked the look of the lights, at night they were sh*te.
It’s amazing what is available nowadays, I bought a 7” single LED and a set of 4.25” twin LED lights from TEMU. Nice and cheap, but they had plastic shells rather than metal.

So I used the twins and took the LED inserts and fitted them into my original Dominators. They are classed as Halo lights, the outer rim can be used as sidelights or DRL’s. I found a pair of Halo LED rings in blue and replaced the white ring with the blue.
All the wiring for the lights was extended so that it went up under the tank instead of sitting on the frame.
I found a headlight bracket which I had been given years ago in a box of unused parts left over from a job, so looked them out and they are cracking. (And bloody expensive)

Console –

The tank console had to be modified, Ignition switch was removed and replaced with a keyless system, I added 2 switches, one for operating the side stand the other for operating some highlight LED’s on the bike.

The original idiot lights were removed and replaced with 0.1mm high brightness tower LED’s then hidden behind a nice piece of wood, by Callum at .
A new mini loom was made to take the new console wiring into both the original loom and the new loom.

Speedo –
Not a lot of modification need for the speedo.
I fitted a dual red/green LED into the centre of the housing above the 2 pushbutton’s so I get a visible indication of the Side Stand position.

Replaced the original backlights with blue LED ones.

Thanks go to Steve my brudder for the blasting of all the bits, Callum at CM Joinery for the wood inlays and Dave at Clockwork Powder Coating for the powder coating and Cerakote coating.

This Cerakote is amazing stuff.

06/01/2025

Meanie Pt6 – Added Electrics

So, last update covered getting the original (slightly modified) wiring loom tidied up.

Loom is now installed back on the bike and looking good.
I had to make a new loom to take in the new wiring for the side stand motor, console wiring and Klicktronic gear change. Anyone with a Meanie will know there is not a lot of extra space to add anything under the seat or behind the side panels, so I decided that the best way was to build a separate box and fit all the needed electronics inside it.

I started by getting a plate and cutting it to fit at the back of the chassis in front of the back wheel. Once I had a working back-plate with everything mounted, I made a cardboard template and shaped it to what I wanted. This got punted to Felix who did a cracking job converting my expert 3D drawing into a bonny electric’s box. Then it was off to Dave again at Clockwork Powder Coating for a nice textured powder-coating.

I found the bi-stable relay board and the nice box on Temu and wired it up for the motor feed, added in 2 resistors for the LED indicators that I fitted, added in the relays and Ignition control and once everything was tested buttoned up the box. Brass dome nuts, threaded rod and spacers finished it off nicely.

Additional fuses were added in behind the side panel, power for the relays, power to the side stand relays and a spare for a leetle something at the end.

The loom also takes the wiring from the side stand limit switches up to a red/green (go/nogo) led hidden within the speedo, the wiring for the push-button start, side stand switch and hyper-charger lights which are fitted in the console.

All the old wiring loom is taped in cotton fabric tape while the new wiring is shrouded in black/gold sleeving.

04/01/2025

Need a good shed for yer bike(s) - Get in touch wi Dex

24/12/2024

Well I was going to put an update on the Meanie, but you've probably read enough so far lol.
Thats it for this year, been a few ups and downs, but battled through, thanks to Callum, Larry and Steve with help on the trike lol

Catch up on the Meanie next year.

24/12/2024

Here at Dad's Shed we're always up for a challenge.

Be it a 1942 Harley Davidson or a 12V Porsche Car, we will endeavour to get you prized vehicle up and running and looking better than new.

So in that vein, and moving with the times,

I give you....

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR..............